SOUTHAMPTON—On May 12th, in a 4-1 vote, the Southampton Town Board officially voted to enact a new law, "Land Disturbance Ordinance," Res. No. 2026-0826, adding Article XIIIA to Chapter 330 of the Town Code. Spearheaded by Councilmember Michael A. Iasilli, and co-sponsored by Councilmember Tom Neely, this landmark legislation establishes a comprehensive permitting process for the removal of natural vegetation and significant topographic changes town wide.
Lee Zeldin introduced himself to EPA staff last year as someone who had experienced first-hand the risks some U.S. communities face from climate change.
In his first speech to agency staff in February 2025, the newly confirmed administrator said his home town on Long Island “got crushed” during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Last summer, more than a hundred and fifty staff members at the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the agency’s head, Lee Zeldin, outlining their concerns about his leadership. Topping the list was Zeldin’s naked partisanship. The administrator often used his official communications to trash Democrats. This “politicized messaging,” the letter said, was undermining trust in the agency. So, too, were Zeldin’s gutting of the E.P.A.’s research division and his tendency to ignore the findings of its scientists. The missive noted that it reflected the staffers’ personal, rather than professional, opinions, and had been written on their own time. It ended by urging Zeldin to “correct course.”
This guest essay reflects the views of Adrienne Esposito, the executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, an advocacy organization based on Long Island.
I've spent decades fighting water contamination on Long Island. I've sat with families who found PFAS in their well water and helped communities and water districts scramble to obtain funding for expensive treatment systems. I've testified for congressional hearings to increase the understanding that PFAS, commonly called "forever chemicals," aren't a hypothetical threat — they are a daily, sickening reality for millions of Americans.
Earth Day is not what it used to be, in amazing and terrible ways.
Off the coast of Long Island, a new chapter in the region’s energy future is already spinning.
The South Fork Wind project — the first utility-scale offshore wind farm serving New York — is now delivering electricity to the East End, demonstrating that offshore wind is no longer theoretical. It’s operating infrastructure.
Brookhaven is asking state regulators to approve a five-year extension of the town's landfill operating permit as the town moves to complete the oft-delayed shutdown of the lucrative but troubled dump.
Town officials and the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the latter which is weighing the town's request for a new permit that would expire in 2031, say the landfill is expected to close when it runs out of room for deposits of trash, primarily ash from Long Island incinerators operated by New Jersey-based Reworld.
A new study shows toxic forever chemicals known as PFAS may be entering the food chain on Long Island through contaminated soil, water and air.
PFAS have leached into our food from packaging and cookware. Now the risk may also be reaching our crops themselves.
U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi stood along the waterfront in Glen Cove on Tuesday, Feb. 17, warning that Long Islanders cannot afford to ignore what he described as a sweeping rollback of federal climate protections.
“Climate change is real,” Suozzi repeated several times during the news conference, held just days after President Donald Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded the 2009 “endangerment finding,” a policy that concluded greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
WASHINGTON — As a four-term congressman, Republican Lee Zeldin played a key role in the yearslong bipartisan push to save Plum Island, off Long Island’s North Fork, from potential commercial development. He helped secure funding for clean water projects in his Suffolk district. And he spoke out against a 2018 proposal to permit offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.
New York climate advocates are disturbed by the Trump administration’s decision to revoke a key legal finding stating that climate change impacts public health.
The 2009 Endangerment Finding has served as the basis for national efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and build more clean energy. The administration claims revoking the finding will lower transportation and energy costs.
Suozzi Calls Out Administration’s Disastrous Rollback of Bedrock Environmental Policy, Stands with Conservationists in calling for the reinstatement of 2009 ‘Endangerment Finding’
Glen Cove, NY— Today, Congressman Tom Suozzi (D-Long Island, Queens) held a press conference to call out the Administration’s revocation of the ‘Endangerment Finding’ that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare—a move widely seen as a major setback to U.S. efforts to combat the climate crisis.
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the State’s $3.8 billion investment in local water infrastructure projects during State Fiscal Year 2025. A newly released New York State Clean Water Funding Report shows that New York delivered $1.1 billion in water quality grants in a single fiscal year, significantly reducing costs for local governments, families and businesses. Governor Hochul’s administration is providing unprecedented support to advance drinking water, wastewater and stormwater upgrades that are protecting public health and the environment, building community resiliency, improving quality of life and creating good-paying jobs.
Cleanup remedies at five Long Island hazardous waste sites "continue to be effective in protecting human health," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said this week, though some of the toxic areas need continued monitoring.
The agency conducted the federally mandated reviews at Superfund sites located in Glen Cove, Port Jefferson Station, Franklin Square and East Farmingdale. Across New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico, 32 federal Superfund sites were appraised, which happen every five years, the EPA said.
The Trump administration on Monday renewed their campaign against two offshore wind projects in New York waters.
Citing unspecified national security risks, the U.S. Department of the Interior “paused” the leases for the Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind projects, both already under construction, plus three additional major offshore wind projects in other states.
Suffolk County Legislator Steven Englebright (D-Setauket) invited Citizens Campaign for the Environment co-founder Adrienne Esposito and CCE board and staff members to the Suffolk County Legislature’s Nov. 25th General Meeting to honor them for 40 years of advocacy. Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst) joined Englebright at the podium, where the CCE team received a proclamation along with flowers and balloons.
Experts warn New York could face energy shortages as early as 2027.
Offshore wind offers clean, reliable power and price stability.
South Fork Wind Farm already powers 70,000 Long Island homes.
Upgraded transmission and new wind projects are urgently needed.
This fall, New Yorkers across the state showed up and spoke up to demand clean, affordable, reliable, safe and healthy energy infrastructure during the state’s energy plan hearings. Tragically, the Trump administration is wreaking havoc on our nation’s clean energy progress, making it more important than ever for New York to step up and lead the way to the sustainable, resilient system we need. Right now, we’re not on track.
